About the small & petty things that accumulate everyday to make a lifetime.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Trip to Borobudur, Central Java

Its amazing how indulgent people in power are & have been through out history! There's this absolutely stellar Buddhist temple built by an ancient king of the Saliendra dynasty in Borobudur; and then as a Hindu response to the Buddhist Borobudur, there's another stellar Hindu temple built by another extravagent king concurrently in next-door Prambanan. And between these two neighbouring temples, what an artisitic feast this place offers!

The temple of Borobudur is astonishingly ancient... "300 years before Cambodia’s Angkor Wat was constructed, 400 years before work began on the great European cathedrals", say the brochures. Its majestic at first glance and then the more closely you look at this temple, and the more you hear about its philosophical & architectural roots & multi-layered complexity, the more you fall in love with it. I feel sad for that competitive Hindu bloke from ancient Java, because our man from the Saliendra dynasty has nailed it. What a sight!